1 of 5
17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
Improving the writing of business management students by providing
an online writing center
Merrily Stover, PhD
Assistant Dean, Communication, Arts and Humanities
University of Maryland University College
Thomas G. Thompson
Academic Director of HR and General Business Programs
University of Maryland University College
Introduction
Background and Rationale of the Online Writing Center
In Spring 2000 UMUC inaugurated the Online Writing Center (OWC) to assist students in the
development of critical thinking skills, understanding of purpose and audience, and the structure,
grammar and punctuation in term paper assignments. The OWC was targeted to support the
“writing across the curriculum" initiative, one of UMUC’s major emphases. The OWC provides
student access to online writing guides, interaction with an online writing advisor and self-study
modules for the improvement of writing skills. The services are free of charge to UMUC
students.
The OWC serves both online students and classroom-based students. UMUC has long faced the
problem of how best to serve its student population, which is comprised primarily of adult parttime students. At one point, UMUC provided writing tutorial services for a fee. This underused
service was eventually abandoned and students could get writing help from freelance writers at
varying fees. Recently, the University of Maryland, College Park’s Writing Center has been
made available to UMUC local students. However, because distance education students and
students in our European and Asian division do not have access to this service, the OWC has been
essential to provide full services to all UMUC students.
The Online Writing Center is linked through UMUC’s proprietary online instructional platform,
WybTycho, so that all online students, in the more than 1000 online classes, may easily access
the Center. Many face-to-face classes are now web-enhanced with the result that students in
these classes may also access the OWC, and it can also be accessed through UMUC web site.
The UMUC Online Writing Center was recognized by the University Continuing Education
Association (UCEA) with the Region II “2000 Award For Excellence.”
Operating Philosophy and Procedures
The goal of the Online Writing Center is to help UMUC students develop writing competencies
necessary to succeed in the classroom and the workplace. To do this, the OWC offers four levels
of services and materials for students. The first is access to the online writing guide and other
writing guides. The UMUC Guide to Writing and Research is a required text for all courses
where another writing guide is not already required. Having the Guide online makes the
materials easily accessible as a reference for students.
The second level provides writing handouts that students may download. These subjects include
how to write a research-based report; managing research materials, documentation guides and
citing Web materials, among other topics.
Copyright © 2001The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
2 of 5
17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
The third level of support is comprised of interactive self-study modules. These self-study
modules enable students to test themselves on writing issues. Students may follow the self-study
modules at their own speed in their own time. The handouts and the self-study modules are
designed with the adult learner in mind, whose writing skills may be “rusty.” Topics for selfstudy modules include plagiarism, and common problems of writing. Others are in development.
The fourth level is one-on-one review of students’ writing by Online Writing Center writing
advisors. Writing advisors provide answers to quick writing questions as well as feedback on
writing drafts. The feedback from the writing advisors is designed to preserve students’
ownership of their papers. Advisors give suggestions for improvement in the areas of critical
thinking, organization, the mechanics of writing, and they model the editing of brief sections of
papers. Students are left with the task of the overall editing and rewriting of their own papers.
Writing advisors utilize assessment tools that were developed by an interdisciplinary committee
of UMUC faculty and academic directors.
The Online Writing Center is supervised by a PhD. graduate student under the direction of the
Director of the Effective Writing Program. The OWC trains and supervises the writing advisors.
Writing advisors are graduate students enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park. The
writing advisors handle student papers on weekdays as well as weekends throughout the year.
The published turn-around time for review of writing assignments is 48 hours. The in-house goal
is 24 hours. Requests for assistance from UMUC to the writing center are reviewed by the
supervisor who assigns the papers to writing advisors. After the writing advisors have submitted
their suggestions and worked with the student, the supervisor then reviews the work before the
papers are returned to the students.
Overall Results
In the year since the Online Writing Center opened, writing advisors have served more than 500
students in improving their writing. Each semester, the number of students has risen substantially
as students learn about the service. Advisors answer e-mail questions from students as well as
helping directly with student papers. However, 90% of the requests involve exchanges of
papers.
Students seeking help with writing assignments have come from a variety of courses across the
curriculum, including Behavioral and social Sciences, Business and Management, Computer
Applications, Communication Studies, English, Prior Learning, Humanities, Information Systems
Management, Paralegal Studies, Psychology, and Technology and Management. The Online
Writing Center currently averages about 56 requests for help a day.
The balance of this paper deals with the experience of students from the Business and
Management area in testing the effectiveness of the Online Writing Center to improve their
writing.
The Business Management Pilot
The Pilot Design
A Management and Organization course was selected because the instructor was a member of the
interdisciplinary committee that developed the assessment tools used by the Online Writing
Center. The pilot ran in the spring, summer and fall terms, 2000 for different sections of the same
course with the same instructor. The term paper accounts for 30% of course grade. Students
were offered a 10- point bonus on their term paper grade if they used the OWC, and completed a
questionnaire describing their experiences. This would add 3 percentage points to their total
Copyright © 2001The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
3 of 5
17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
course grade. The cooperating students were also given an extra week to complete and submit
their paper.
The Pilot Results
The pilot appears to have been successful. Sixty four of ninety one (70.3%)students, over the
three semesters, took advantage of the OWC pilot program. Table 1 below shows the differences
in average term paper grades for the users and non-users of the OWC pilot program over the four
semesters.
Table 1
Comparison of Grades between users and non-users of the writing center.
Users Av. Score Non-users
Av. Score
Spring 2000, sec. 1
Spring 2000, sec. 2
Summer 2000
Fall 2000
13
20
12
19
91.8
90.0
91.6
91.6
4
6
6
11
85.0
82.5
83.8
84.7
Total
64
91.1
27
84.1
The difference of 7 percentage points (8.3% difference) was relatively consistent across semesters
and is significant at the .05 confidence level. The 10-point bonus for pilot participation is not
included in these grades.
A copy of the questionnaire administered and a tabulation of results by question are show in
Table 2. Tabulations of the questionnaire showed that only 1 of the 64 students was aware of the
center before this pilot. Even though the OWC opened in spring, 2000 the summer and fall
students did not have an increased awareness. Ninety-two percent (59 of 64) felt the OWC
responded in a timely manner. Approximately one-third of the participating students reported
receiving significant feedback from the OWC in the clarification of ideas, organization,
readability and grammar. Clarification of purpose, strengthened conclusions and citation help
was reported by approximately one-fifth of participating students. On the average students
reported three categories of useful feedback. Selected quotations from the student assessment of
the type and quality of feedback provided:
1. “improved sentence structure and consistency of writing style ”
2. “significantly improved readability of paper in addition to providing support
with difficult citations”
3. “clarified structure of paper, moderated use of technical language”
4. “clearer ideas, stronger arguments, grammar and conclusion”
5. “reduce wordiness, cut out unneeded sentences”
6. “organization and use of evidence”
7. “strengthened topic sentences to help reader better understand “
8. “new set of eyes catches things I miss after reading several times: suggestion
to read aloud helps me understand how it will come across to reader”
9. “gave ideas to add emphasis to the subject”
Copyright © 2001The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
4 of 5
17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
The participants were equally divided in terms of their perception of whether the OWC helped
them understand the project and subject matter more completely. The students were unanimous
in their willingness to use the Online Writing Center again.
Table 2
Writing Center Questionnaire With Respondent Tabulations
1. Did you know about center before instructor announced the opportunity to earn extra
credit? Yes_____1______
No____63_______
2. Did the writing center respond to you in a timely manner? (within 48 hours)
Yes____59_______
No____5_______
If no and there were extenuating circumstances please describe.
3. Indicate which of the following types of feedback you received from the writing center,
and the degree to which you feel it helped you improve your final submission..
Clarification purrpose________23____________________________
Clarification of ideas/concepts_____35________________________
Organization of arguments and evidence______32_______________
Improved readability and/or clarity of presentation_______36______
Improved grammar and/or punctuation_______33________________
Strengthen your conclusion/recommendations________22_________
Assisted with citation protocol________24_____________________
4.
Did revising your paper based upon the writing center advisor's feedback help you
understand you subject matter more completely?
Yes_____31_______ No___30______ (3 no responses
If Yes, Please Explain_____________________________________________
5. Would you use the writing center again? Yes____64_______ No______0____
If yes, with any conditions?__________________________________________
The pilot project instructor looked at average term paper grades for semesters prior to this pilot.
The definition of the term paper has been consistent over time. There was a small improvement in
the average grade for the sections that used the Online Writing Center, but the assessment
rubric(s) used to evaluate the term papers raised the grading standard so that a meaningful
comparison is difficult.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The pilot program was successful by any of the metrics used for assessment. Caution should
always be used in survey analysis in distinguishing between statistical and causal relationships.
For example when examining the distribution of grades for users and non-users there were several
weaker scores that accounted for most of the difference in average scores. The majority of the
scores were similar. A plausible conclusion is that weaker students often don’t seek help even
when it is in their best interest.
An important factor that was highlighted by the questionnaire results is that more effort needs to
be expended to inform students of the Online Writing Center. Two corrective actions were taken
by placing a link in the options menu for every online course and by promoting the OWC actively
in UMUC publications to students.
Copyright © 2001The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
5 of 5
17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
The administration at UMUC is confident that the Online Writing center contributes to the
achievement of the “writing across the curriculum’ initiative. The current fifty-two inquiries per
semesterday extrapolates to approximately 15,300 inquiries per year; which would represent
approximately twenty-five percent of all UMUC students taking advantage of the Online Writing
Center each year, if all the inquiries were from different students.
Acknowledgement: Robert MacDonald, Director of the Effective Writing Program at UMUC,
provided information about the logistics of the Online Writing Center, and assisted with points of
emphasis.
References
Hobson, E. H., Ed. (1998). Wiring the writing center. Logan, Utah: University of Utah Press.
Inman, J. A. and D. N. Sewall, Eds. (2000). Taking flight with OWLs: Examining electronic
writing center work. Mahwah, N. J.: Erlebaum & Sons.
Merrily Stover is Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Programs, at the University of Maryland
University College (UMUC). A leader in distance learning in post secondary education, Dr.
Stover’s area of purview includes the arts and humanities, amongst other disciplines. Dr. Stover
also oversees the design and development of UMUC’s award winning Online Writing Center. Dr.
Stover has presented numerous papers on distance and online learning to national and
international audiences. An Anthropologist by training, Dr. Stover previously taught at the British
Open University, Monterey Institute of International Studies, and the University of Hawaii. She
currently teaches undergraduate courses online at UMUC.
Merrily Stover, PhD.
University of Maryland University College
3501 University Boulevard East
Adelphi, MD 20783
Phone: 301-985-7877: Fax: 301-985-7698
E-mail: mstover@umuc.edu
Thomas Thompson, Academic Director of HRM and General Business Programs at University of
Maryland University College (UMUC), is responsible for curriculum development and staff
hiring for both online and classroom-based business courses. He has been a project manager, an
author, and a reviewer for the development of online courses as well as teaching classroom, webbased online, and interactive television courses. His dissertation-in-process on the management
of web-based course development won the 2000 William Rainey Harper Research Grant Award..
Mr. Thompson has presented at over a dozen national and regional distance education
conferences. Mr. Thompson previously taught at Johns Hopkins University, the Rotterdam
School of Management, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Villa Julie College.
Thomas G. Thompson.
University of Maryland University College
3501 University Boulevard East
Adelphi, MD 20783
Tel. 301-985-7788: Fax 301-985-7021
E-mail: tthompson@umuc.edu
Copyright © 2001The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.